Week 8, wow.

It’s so hard to believe that I’m in my last week of being here in Germany. It is still so surreal to think that I am actually sitting here in Germany, after it has been a dream of mine to come here for many years. However, let’s stop thinking about the ever nearing future, and focus on the previous week.

Most of the week for me was pretty low key, as I mainly just went to work and came back to the hotel for the evening. I had some work that I needed to do for 247 Fighting Championships, so that’s how I spent a few of my evenings as well. As the weekend rolled around, our group was able to meet up with a few of the other students from a different internship group, so that was pretty fun. On Saturday, we went to the Berlin Zoo, which happens to be the biggest zoo in Europe. I enjoy zoos, as they sometimes make me feel like a little kid again. That evening, we all went out as a group again.

Sunday was fairly chill as well, but in the evening the final game of the 2024 European Championship was played. It was a hard decision choosing which team I wanted to support, as Spain had knocked Germany out of the tournament, and England. As a group, we decided to support England.

Bad Choice.

England lost to Spain in the final minutes of the game and once again lost in the final of a tournament.

While it was a bit annoying that the team we picked lost, we still had a great time and it was an amazing experience to witness the famous European soccer culture. I’d say that overall it was a very successful weekend.

This past week within the workplace was fairly normal, as I went to work every day and was in my normal routine. This week I got to do a bit different of a task – I was tasked with coming up with a new marketing scheme for the company – which included coming up with a logo and some other materials. It was very nice to be able to use some creativity and be tasked with coming up with a new brand identity.

I presented my ideas to the rest of the team, and I would say it was pretty successful.

Speaking of successful… what really makes someone successful here in the German work culture?

I would say that success is a bit of a looser term here than in America. I feel that in America a successful employee is someone that goes above and beyond expectations, works more than they are required and so on. However, in Germany, I believe that the bar is set lower since there is an emphasis on having a work-life balance.

Now are there still people that work above and beyond and extra time and everything? Of course. I’ve personally found more success when I wasn’t working overtime. For example, this past Friday I was able to leave work early because I hit a creative roadblock. When I came back on Monday, I was able to get farther in the task because all I needed was a step away from it for a bit. Would I be deemed as unsuccessful because I couldn’t finish the task on the day I wanted to? Absolutely not.

As long as you are meeting expectations and deadlines, you are considered a successful employee. Success shouldn’t be defined in an overall sense. It should be more personal. As like everything else in life – everyone is on their own journey. Just because one person is further along on their journey, doesn’t mean that they are more successful than someone else. That’s the mindset here in Germany.

When I got to Formly, there were no expectations for me. I told them beforehand that this was my first professional experience and they said “Hey we will work with you however you need.” This was so comforting because I knew that I didn’t have to try and live up to being the next big founder. I’m an intern…doing intern things. As I worked though, I was given more important tasks.

That’s success. Being able to show growth in a field that you have no prior knowledge in is success.

I am successful.

I am a bit sad that my internship is wrapping up in the next few days, but I will be forever grateful to the entire Formly team for helping me grow in so many ways this summer.

I still got one more post in me, so stay with me and I will talk to you soon.

Tschüss!